Cons:

We've all heard the story by now: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory is the legitimate sequel to the original game that helped launch a million Xboxes. After creating the first title, the Montreal team immediately began work on a game that would fix every problem people had with Sam Fisher's first adventure. While they were working, however, Ubisoft's Shanghai team took the reins, added an online multiplayer mode, and ended up with Pandora Tomorrow, one of 2004's most popular games. Now, Montreal is ready to show gamers what they've spent the last few years creating: one of the best Xbox games of all time.

As you might expect, the story in the single-player campaign feels like it's been ripped straight out of Mr. Clancy's latest technothriller, complete with international intrigue, double-crosses, and plenty of high-tech jargon. However, unlike the previous games in the series, the story is actually pretty coherent this time around, and the writing (especially the dialogue) has been improved immensely. This is the first game that really gives you a sense of Sam's personality, and hearing him joke around with his support team will bring a smile to your face, as will overhearing the conversations of his terrified foes. The writers also managed to sneak in some not-so-subtle digs at the nature of the series itself, riffing on everything from setting off alarms to killing civilians.

I've written plentyofpreviews on Chaos Theory in the last few months, so I'm not going to bore you by listing all of the game's new features. It should be said, however, that this is one of those rare titles that managed to change nearly every aspect of the game without negatively affecting the gameplay itself. This is evident right from the start, as you now have a choice of weapon and gadget loadouts, all dependent on whether you want to stealthily make your way through the level or if you'd rather charge in with guns a-blazing. In addition to the straight-up Stealth or Assault options, you can choose Redding's Recommendation, which generally falls somewhere between the two extremes.

While being able to choose how you want to equip yourself is all well and good, it doesn't mean a thing if the levels aren't set up to maximize your choices. The other games in the series were fairly linear, as you had to move Sam from objective to objective without tripping any alarms or getting caught. Although this was certainly entertaining, it resulted in a lot of trial-and-error gameplay. You could use one particular tactic, and if it didn't work, you'd simply reload and try it another way. However, the developers at Ubisoft wanted to ensure that there was more than one way to get through a level, and they've succeeded in crafting the video game version of a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book.